Month: December 2010

Well another new year is about to rear its head and that always provides an opportunity for reminiscing. It’s been a strange one from my point of view – I’ve done the least amount of sailing since I was about 7 and not through choice! I’ve tried pretty hard to go sailing and put the hours in but I’ve spent ages at the whim of weather, multiple club duties and now an empty lake. At some point you have to decide at what level you intend to compete and so far I have seen little point in driving hours across the country just to train but have come to the conclusion that I’m going to have to put the hours in! I know the boat is faster than ever and the TideRide proved that despite my rustyness so just the mission of getting back to racing fitness and getting on top of the boat handling again…

I suppose with the size of the UK and the broadness of sailing we have over here it’s easy to take for granted what we have and while I am in a bit of a black hole in the country with only one club I could sail at, within 2-3 hours I could be at any one of a number of clubs with a load of other Moths enjoying some time on the water.This has been one of my opposing thoughts on the wing topic in that in the UK we do travel frequently by trailer/cartop and hard sails would be a burden on that – not an insurmountable one certainly but a burden nonetheless and having had a chance to catch up with Adam over the Christmas period and check out his wing hasn’t really alleviated my concerns in this area. Even the best case of it breaking down into 4 pieces still won’t fit on a car and would need a large trailer (or a VW transporter, lucky me!). Don’t even get me starting on the SA (stupid americans) forum wars. Too many people not knowing when to stfu, along with my favorite – I don’t know who in their right mind believes there is an “anti wing lobby” makes it sound like the Illuminati is out to get us….

It’s the usual exciting time in Mothland with Blog reports starting to come out (Matt Knowles has been excellent) and I’m looking forward to hearing all about it and wishing I was there. Someone asked me while I was feeling grumpy on Facebook how I could afford not to be there and I can see the sentiment but it’s the harsh reality of self employment (and building things at that) in that just affording to go is only half the battle but it’s what you can afford to miss out on workwise that’s far more important. Those who can telecommute have it easy but nothing gets made while I’m gone…

Anyway. Looking forward – the Bristol Mothies are in good spirits despite not having been on the lake since September (July in my case!), and we all met up a couple of weeks back in Bath for drinks to catchup. It’s been all change though, with Tom Offer picking up a Mach2, Simon Hindley sellling his Prowler to make way for the Turtle and me working on the 2011 boat and foils… Names and silly colour schemes on a postcard!

The winter silly season is kicking off with the Grafham GP this Sunday (sorry, too far for me for one day!) and the Bloody Mary the following Saturday which usually attracts a good bunch of Moths and I’m hoping for +figure temperatures at least…

Happy New Year everybody. Here’s your post-Christmas foil update!
Mike Cooke and Jason Belben have both been sailing with a set of experimental, very skinny, high modulus foils for for the latter half of the season. After a few months of testing, we know that they are very fast, but have been a little fragile. Kevin Ellway has worked on a few tweaks to the designs to correct this and Mike is about about to get the new moulds produced.
We intend to sell these new skinny foils from February 2011 onwards. They will fit existing Ninjas with very little modification, and the rudders can be used on all designs. If you are interested in a daggerboard conversion on another design get in touch, as this may also be possible.
Pricing will be confirmed in the near future, but expect them to be in the region of £1500 per foil.
If you are interested in getting your hands on the very latest kit from Aardvark HQ, drop us an email: mike@aardvarkracing.co.uk

The recent cold spell, combined with the lack of water means the lake has now frozen over! What little sailing they were trying to run at BCYC has been canned for this weekend. Fingers cross it lets up enough to thaw out and that Bristol Water start filling up again.

Thankfully there has been no wind lately so I coulnd’t have been sailing elsewhere! Aus is looking more and more sensible by the minute…